Weekly Review October 2 '10

October already! Where has 2010 gone, anyway? I am not feeling very ready for the onslaught of the holiday season, but I guess it is going to come whether I am ready for it or not. Don't get me wrong--I love the holiday season! It's just such a busy time of year, though.

I was up bright and early on Sunday because Ward Council was at 7:00. The beautiful sunrise that morning made it worth being up early, though. Frank spoke in Sacrament Meeting and he did a great job. I had a little bit of trouble hearing him, though, because the young children in the audience seemed to be particularly restless--especially a particular young child named Seth. They forgot to bring his quiet book to church, and believe me--I noticed a difference! Anyway, Frank spoke on the power of the priesthood (based on President Packer's talk at last General Conference) and from what I heard, it was a very good talk. I had choir practice after church, so it was kind of a long day, but nice.

The "out of the ordinary" things that happened this week--Monday I got my hair cut and colored. I'm back to being brown with a little bit of red mixed in; quite a change after the blonde highlights I've had all summer! Tuesday I took Seth to the library. I've had four books on hold at the library for a while, and they all came in at once, so I have a lot of reading material right now! Tanner and Frank went home teaching that evening. Wednesday morning Frank went with me to Lowe's to price gravel for Scott's eagle scout project (they forgot that part when they went last week). We got a couple of pumpkins and some pansies; if I ever get a chance to plant the pansies and it stops raining long enough to mow the lawn, the yard will look quite nice! Tanner had an eye doctor appointment Wednesday after school. His eyes haven't changed at all, but his prescription is only good for a year and he was almost out of contact lenses, so I had to get him a new prescription.

We've had a lot of rain this week; especially on Wednesday and Thursday. It started to rain Wednesday evening and it came down hard all night and well into Thursday. We were under a flash flood watch, and the streets were certainly quite wet! We had rain on Monday and Tuesday also, and rain earlier in the day on Wednesday as well, so it was a very wet week.

Frank planned to work from home Wednesday because he had to help set up a computer system and put in a server at a client Wednesday evening / night. It didn't work out that way, though, because an emergency came up with another client. He ended up leaving here around 10:00 Wednesday morning and he didn't get home until 7:00 Thursday morning. Yikes! By the time he finished with the emergency with the first client, it wasn't worth coming home--he was supposed to meet to help set up the computer system at 9:00, and with traffic that day (it was particularly bad because there was a serious bus crash on I-270) he would only have been home about an hour before having to turn around and go back. Setting up the system was supposed to take until between 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning, but it ended up taking until 6:00 am. Frank was supposed to be at another client's at 6:00 Thursday morning, but (wisely) he postponed that appointment and came home to sleep instead! I feel so bad that he has to work so hard, but I do appreciate all he does to be a good employee and to provide for our family.


Frank only slept about 4 hours Thursday morning, much to my surprise. Then he was up and working again, although he worked from home. Later in the afternoon, after it quit raining (finally!) he went outside and cleaned out his car, so I could take it on my trip. (Item: there would not have been room for more than one person if he hadn't cleaned it out!)

I was also busy this week getting ready for my trip to Kentucky as well as trying to get Scott's eagle scout project write-up turned in for approval. We had to get the park ranger's signature before we could turn it in, and that turned out to be trickier than we'd planned because she's been out of the office for over a week. When we finally got in touch with her, she said she'd sign it and leave it at the park office for me, but when I drove up there on Wednesday afternoon, the office was locked and no one answered the phone, either. We got in touch with her later that afternoon and arranged to meet her at the library (she was going to be there with her son) so we finally got it signed. By the way, I wasn't too upset about the fruitless drive up to the state park, even though it was about an hour round trip, because it was a beautiful drive. The leaves are starting to turn colors on the trees. Seth enjoyed the drive, also. We have not been able to get the write up turned in yet, but hopefully that will happen this week.


Wii update: I managed to find and pop all 20 balloons in the free ride bicycle course. I know, that doesn't mean anything to you if you don't have a Wii, but trust me: it's quite an accomplishment! Ok, to be perfectly honest, I only found 19 of them myself. I was having a hard time finding that last one, and I mentioned it to Frank, and he went online and looked up where the last one was. I have the type of personality that I never would have looked it up myself--I would have kept looking until I found it! But since he was so nice to do that for me, and he even printed up a map for me...well, it was just too tempting not to look!

My left shoulder was really hurting me this week. On Monday I was holding Seth when I stepped backwards and ran into a laundry basket. I nearly fell over backwards, but managed to stop myself--but in the process I must have pulled some muscles back there. My shoulder really started hurting on Wednesday, and at first I couldn't figure out why, but then I remembered my stunt on Monday. It was very sore on Wednesday and Thursday, but thankfully started to improve on Friday and is quite a bit better now.


So Friday morning, after getting the kids to school, my friend Rebecca and I took off to visit our other friend, Marci, who lives in Kentucky. When we were going over schedules on Sunday and I reminded the kids that I was going to be gone this weekend, Jared said "Wow, it's going to be weird to have Mom gone. Mom NEVER leaves." So I started thinking about it, and realized that the last time I was away from home for a night (not counting 2 nights in the hospital when Seth was born and 6 nights in the hospital with heart problems--which doesn't count, right?) was when I went to girls' camp in 2001--over 9 years ago! So maybe not never, but close enough! Anyway, I am really glad that Rebecca was able to come with me. That would have been a very long 9 hour drive without her!! As it was, the time seemed to pass pretty quickly as we chatted the whole way. We went through some very beautiful country on the way, also.

It's been fun to be here--like one big sleep over!! We've mostly just been talking, but today we also went to a store called Hobby Lobby, which was a lot of fun. Last night we took Marci out to eat to celebrate her birthday (which is Tuesday, but we won't be here then). It's been a lot of fun, but I miss all my "boys" also. (That includes Frank!) I've talked to Seth on the phone a few times; it's a lot harder to understand him over the phone than in person!!! (I "talked" to Seth's friend, Monster, also!) I will be glad to be home again, but I am enjoying this time with my friends.

At home, Frank reports that Jared's team won their soccer game today, 7-1. Tanner spent the night with his friend Ryan last night. All three of the older boys went to the priesthood session this evening with Ryan's family. (Frank couldn't go, since he was taking care of Seth.) Apparently, Snickers is missing me--Frank says he is spending a lot of time waiting by the door. Hopefully the rest of them miss me, too!

Weekly Review September 25 '10

Our week began with Stake Conference, which was great. Frank and I attended the adult session Saturday evening, which we really enjoyed. Before the meeting we went out to eat. We used the gift card that Frank won from work. The restaurant is one of the nicest (and priciest) restaurants in Frederick; we had a $100 gift card and used almost all of it! That's definitely not something we could afford to do normally, so it was really nice to have that opportunity without worrying about the cost. The food was delicious!


Frank had to be at the Stake Center Sunday morning at 7:00 to help set up all the cameras and televisions, but that meant he was able to save us a seat in the chapel on the soft benches, which was really nice. Our new stake presidency is going to be great! The visiting general authorities gave great talks, also. All the boys (even Seth) behaved quite well. (I'm so glad I finished that quiet book!) After conference was over, we were able to enjoy a quiet afternoon together. Our friends the Koettings, who usually come for dinner afterwards, were not able to come this time. We missed them, but it was nice to relax as a family for the rest of the day.


I have nothing written on the calendar for Monday, so I don't remember what I did. I'm sure I didn't lie in bed eating chocolates, though! I always manage to squeeze a lot of errands or chores into the couple of hours that Seth is at school. For family night we played Apples to Apples, which was fun.


I had book club Tuesday. I was not able to read the new book we switched to, but we did talk a little bit about the book I read also. We always have really interesting discussions and the food is always really good also. There is a new member of our ward attending book club now, and she has a 4 year old boy named Logan; Seth really enjoys playing with him! Jared had soccer practice Tuesday evening, so I took Seth with me to that. Seth had to use the bathroom about an hour into the practice, though, and there are no restrooms at this park (can't figure out why--it's one of the biggest parks in the city) so I had to run home with him. Thankfully, Frank was almost home from work by then, so he was able to pick Jared up on his way home.


Wednesday I had a presidency meeting in the evening. I can't remember what I did during the day other than making a lot of phone calls to set up various appointments. I remember it was a productive day where I got a lot done, but no details (and they'd probably be boring anyway). Frank had an exceptionally busy work week, which explains why he was coming home at 7:00 on Tuesday when Jared's soccer practice was ending. He got home just after dinner on Wednesday, but then he got a phone call and had to go somewhere else, and he didn't get home until after the boys and I got home from scouts at the church (about 9:00). That meant that Seth came to presidency meeting with me, but he behaved really well, so that wasn't a problem.



Thursday was a very busy day. I took the boys to school and then stayed for about 25 minutes to help take two groups of kids in Seth's class to the school library. I will be doing that every other Thursday. When I was done there, I ran home to pick up Snickers in time to drop him off at his grooming appointment. Then I did some shopping since there wasn't really time to go home and get anything accomplished before it would be time to pick up Seth. I got Seth at school and we went straight from there to a visiting teaching appointment. Then we had a few errands to run on the way home, so I didn't get home long before Scott & Tanner got home at 2:30. By then it was time to pick up Snickers--Scott went with me to do that so he could drive. After that I had a few minutes to relax before it was time to start making dinner--the missionaries were coming over that night. In between all that, I also did several loads of laundry! Frank was able to be home for dinner, but then he had to go do some more work for a client here in Frederick, and he didn't get home until after midnight. The boys did not have school Friday, so we stayed up later than usual watching the movie The Prince of Persia. Jared was the only one who had seen it already. It was really good; we enjoyed it. There was a lot of fighting, but they didn't make it too gory, so it was fairly kid friendly. After the boys went to bed, I waited up for Frank--I folded all the laundry and watched some HGTV.


The boys were out of school on Friday for "Fair Day". We opted not to go to the fair, though. Scott had an overnighter at one of his leader's cabins and Tanner had a camp out that night. Jared had a soccer game that evening, as well. During the day I got some work done and took Scott to Wal-Mart in search of a new Sunday suit (he's outgrown his Sunday clothes again); he also wanted to spend some birthday money. He found what he wanted, but we didn't have any luck with the suit. We found pants, but no suit coats. It's really hard to find pants that will fit him, also.

I ended up taking Jared to his soccer game last night while Frank did some work (it was another busy work day for him). Jared had a game today, also. His team won the game last night 3-2. I thought after playing last night that his team might be kind of tired today, but I didn't have to worry. They won their game today 7-0. His team is really looking good this year. They are doing awesome teamwork--making great passes to each other. It is really fun to watch them! Jared scored one goal last night and today he scored one goal and assisted with another. He says he can't really take credit for the goal he scored today because one of his teammates attempted a goal, which the goalie managed to stop by diving for the ball, but then the goalie lost control of the ball and Jared just ran up and tapped it into the goal. On the goal he assisted, he made a beautiful pass to a teammate who made another beautiful pass to another teammate who kicked the goal. After the game they had team photos taken.

Tanner got back from his camp out while I was at Jared's game. (Scott won't be back until late this evening.) Tanner reports that he went rock climbing and it was terrifying, but he did it. (He takes after his mother--he's scared of heights.)

I'm looking forward to going to the General RS meeting tonight. Our stake is having a short meeting with dessert before the broadcast from Salt Lake City starts.


It may have been the first day of fall this week, but the weather has mostly been feeling like summer! It was cooler at the beginning of the week, but by Wednesday we were having temperatures in the 90's. Very unusual for September! I am not complaining, really, but I would prefer the 70's of autumn--much more pleasant! Today we are back down to the 80's, which feels nice.

Seth has been going around singing songs that he is learning at school. They have a song for each letter to help teach them what sounds the letters make. This week he's been singing "Barney Beaver builds his dam. With his tail he says b-bam!" to the tune of the first two lines of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It's really cute. He is also adding new words to his vocabulary. This week I asked him a question "Do you mean...?" and he answered with a very emphatic "Exactly!" I didn't even know he knew that word.

Our rocking chair, which has been coming apart for weeks, finally self destructed completely this week. That means both the chairs we bought about 18 months ago are gone. We really need to get another couch or some chairs, but haven't had time to go shopping.

At book chat on Tuesday I loaned The Chestry Oak to a friend. She called me Friday afternoon to tell me that she had just finished it, and that it is "one of the most beautiful books I've ever read". I guess she had a bad week and she said she really appreciated me loaning her the book because it was a real bright spot in her week. See mom, you have great taste! I'm so glad she liked it. She thought we should read it for book club, but since it's so hard to find copies of that book, we won't be able to read it together. I'll probably end up loaning my copy to each person, one at a time.

I hope Curtis and Paula both had nice birthdays this week!

Weekly Review September 18 '10

We are having Stake Conference this week end. Tomorrow we are getting a new stake presidency. We've had the current presidency for nearly 10 years. It's kind of sad, but I think a change will be good, also. Anyway, having stake conference means we didn't have any church meetings or activities all week except special stake conference-related meetings. We were encouraged, as always, to go to the temple as much as we could this week, and then Friday night there was a special "7th floor" session at the temple. It was nice having a week where we could focus on the temple, although there were things going on at school and in the community to keep us busy and a little distracted.

I was not feeling too great on Sunday, but thankfully I was feeling well enough to go to church and do what I had to do there. Frank was not so lucky--he was really feeling miserable, so he stayed home. I had to be at the church at 8:30 for one last song practice--all the Primary teachers sang a song in Sacrament Meeting that day. It turned out really nice, actually, and I really felt the spirit while we were singing. I heard some nice comments afterwards. (We sang a song from the children's songbook called "How Will They Know"--it's a beautiful song!) The choir has been on "summer break" since July, but that is the third time I've sung in Sacrament Meeting in the last 6 weeks! The stake primary president came to our primary on Sunday to do sharing time (we had invited her to do that) and she did a fantastic job! She also came to our Sacrament Meeting and heard our song, so now it looks like some of us are going to be singing that same song for our leadership training meetings in October.

We had beautiful weather on the weekend and the beginning part of this week--gorgeous "Indian Summer" days. I kept thinking it was too bad that I wasn't feeling better so I could enjoy it more. As it was, I didn't have much energy and stayed kind of "holed up" inside. I got a little better every day, though, and I'm grateful for that. Frank has also improved and was even better enough on Monday that he was able to put in a full day of work, which is a great blessing.

I can't remember much about Monday, but I know I was busy. I spent a couple of hours doing some research so I would have a better idea who to vote for in the local elections. For famly night we got Dunkin Donuts--the boys each had a coupon to get a free donut from there.

There wasn't any school on Tuesday because it was primary election day. I decided to take advantage of the fact that I had babysitters at home and went to the temple. I almost didn't go--I woke up later than I'd planned and I was worried that I might have a coughing fit or two in the middle of the session--but I wasn't coughing nearly as much Tuesday morning as I was Monday morning, so I decided to try it. I'm really glad I did! Although I coughed enough that the sweet temple worker gave me a small bottled water, I never had a major coughing fit and it was really wonderful to be in the temple again. I stopped on the way to the temple to vote, so I felt like I got a couple of worthwhile things done that day. Frank had a very busy work day and didn't make it to the polls before they closed. I told him he should think about doing an absentee ballot next time, since he never can predict when he's going to have a day like that! He seems to have days like that more often than not, lately. Jared had his first soccer practice of the season that evening. I took Seth with me to that, and he enjoyed running all over the park. After we got home, Jared had a big project for school he had to finish up, and I ended up staying up late helping him with that. I didn't get my normal "Tuesday chores" done, but it was definitely a busy and productive day.

Wednesday was busy also, since I was getting caught up on the things I was not able to do on Tuesday. Even though I was up late with Jared, I still woke up at 5:00 and couldn't go back to sleep, but that turned out to be a good thing since I had so much to do. We were interested to see the election results--we had a good friend who was running for the Board of Education--but unfortunately he didn't make it into the general election. A lot of good people did move on, though. The boys didn't have scouts that night and Frank was going to take Scott to the store to price the materials needed for his Eagle scout project, but he ended up working late enough that he wasn't able to do that. He took him on Thursday night instead, while I went to "Back to School Night" at Jared & Seth's school.

Thursday was also busy with trips to three stores as well as to the library. In between all the chores, I did manage to get more exericising done and I did a lot of reading also. I finished the book for book club, but they decided late last week to change books so once again I'm not going to get the book we're discussing read. I tried to get it, but there is a wait to get it from the library and book club is on Tuesday. They decided to switch books because one of the other women who had finished it said it was boring and didn't end well. I was far enough into it, though, that I wanted to find out what happened. It definitely wasn't the best book I ever read and it did kind of fall flat, but I did enjoy it at times. (It's called La's Orchestra Saves the World, by Alexander McCall Smith). It started raining Thursday afternoon and we had a small thunderstorm in the night.

Frank and I went to the temple Friday night for the meeting I mentioned earlier. We left early enough that we were able to go through an endowment session before the meeting. I had a headache before we left and started feeling a bit nauseated on the way down, so I was a little worried about making it through a session. But once we got to the temple and I was able to get a drink and eat a few pretzels I started to feel better so I was able to do the session as planned. We were some of the last people to get to the session, and the room was full. It was really awesome to walk in there because almost every face in the whole session was familiar--members of our stake. The meeting afterwards was really great also. I particularly enjoyed the remarks made by Elder Tingey, the temple president. On the way home we stopped to get some dinner. I continued to feel a little funny the rest of the evening, but never got sick; I'm grateful for that! Today I feel a lot better.

Today has been busy with homework and scout stuff. I helped Jared do some things to pass off Tenderfoot and 2nd Class. He has done most of the requirements for Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, and 1st Class, but has a few things to finish up in each area. For Scott, we are trying to get his project description finished up so we can get the signatures we need and submit it for approval. We are hoping to get it submitted this week. It's been a busy morning, and tempers have not been idle, either!

Now Frank is with Jared at his first soccer game of the season, Tanner is working on homework, Scott is playing at a friend's house, and I am going to take Seth to the park. Later, Frank and I plan to go to the adult session of stake conference. I've kept Seth waiting long enough, so I'd better post this and go!

Weekly Review September 11 '10

Seth thought his old formula dispenser was a flag stand!

Mr. Ham posing for the camera

A "fort" the boys built on Sunday, from the outside

The fort from the inside; Scott resting

This was kind of a strange week because the kids were out of school on Monday and on Thursday. (Thursday was Rosh Hashanah--we get out of school for several of the larger Jewish holidays.) Since last week end, I've been battling a headache / congestion / sore throat off and on. Some days it's worse than others, so I alternate between having productive days and days that I lie around as much as possible. I hope whatever it is, that it goes away soon!

Sunday was really busy. It started out with Frank staying home from church with Seth, because Seth's left leg was hurting again. He started complaining about it on Saturday evening and it still hurt Sunday morning. It didn't seem to be as bad this time, and by Sunday evening he was doing much better, so we didn't go to the doctor again, but we are still wondering what's up. The older three boys and I went to church as usual, but afterwards I had a song practice and then two visits for Primary children, so I didn't get home until after 3:00. (And we have church at 9:00 am now--just started that on Sunday also.) The highlight of the day (for me, anyway) was when Scott got up in testimony meeting and bore a very sweet testimony about the feelings he had at the baptism on Saturday, how he feels about being able to use the priesthood to be a witness for those baptisms and for blessing the sacrament, how he loves how he feels at church, how he is grateful he chose to be baptized at age 8, and how he appreciates the examples set for him by others and how he knows now it is his turn to be a good example to others. It was awesome! As a parent, it doesn't get much better than that. I was just sorry that Frank wasn't there to hear it, too. There was a fireside that evening for the YM and their parents to introduce the new Duty to God program. Frank took the boys to that. In between, we had family night and I talked to a friend on the phone, so that day was pretty full.

Scott and Tanner both spent the night with friends from church Sunday night. On Monday, Frank and the older three boys got a chance to go play paint ball, so they did that and had a lot of fun. By the time they got home, Tanner was very tired and not feeling very well--he was quite congested. I was surprised (but glad) when he still got up and went to Seminary and school on Tuesday. On Wednesday he didn't go to school, though--his stomach was upset.

Anyway, back to Monday--Seth and I enjoyed watching a movie together while everyone else was gone. Then we had a cook out for dinner and actually ate outside--it's been much too hot to do that for most of the summer, but the weather has cooled down this week and been very beautiful for the most part--breezy, sunny, and pleasantly cool.

Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly productive days. I got errands run, chores done, and exercised while Seth was at school. On Wednesday I also got Jared's merit badges attached to his sash (I love that merit badge magic stuff!), made banana bread, and made a Christmas pillow case for Seth. The other three boys still have (and use!) their Christmas pillow cases that Aunt Julia made for them. Last Christmas I realized that by next Christmas Seth would be old enough to notice that he didn't have a special pillow case, so I decided I'd better make him one sometime this year. It turned out really nice and it was super easy to make. I'm really pleased with it! I enjoyed that little project so much that maybe I'll make some more for Frank and I!

On Wednesday I also went to a local used book store in search of a book that I was supposed to get for my birthday (I ordered it online with all the others, but after the place sent me the wrong book 3 times, I gave up and asked for my money back!) I didn't find the book I was looking for, but I found a lot of others for really cheap--between $1 and $3 each. I came home with quite a stash of childhood favorites and Newbery awards winners. (I'm still trying to read all of those.) I knew going to that store would be dangerous! (I've been there before...) It is fun to have a lot of new reading material, though.

Before YM on Wednesday night, I met with one of the boys who has been working on his Personal Management merit badge, so he could pass that off. After YM, Scott went to a movie at the dollar theater with some of his friends. They were supposed to get rides with some of the older kids who can drive, but that fell through so I ended up driving them over and picking them up. (Frank had to get up early for work, so he went to bed.) I didn't get to bed until after midnight, but luckily no one had to get up for school Thursday morning and Seth slept until 7:00, so that wasn't too bad. Thursday was one of the days that I wasn't feeling very well, but I worked all morning to get laundry done, vacuuming, groceries purchased, and also made a trip to the library to pick up my book for book club. After that, I collapsed and tried to relax most of the afternoon (as much as you can with a 3 year old who needs something every couple of minutes!) Seth got books at the library also, and I enjoyed reading them to him. The boys took him to the park for a while in the evening, also. Tanner started feeling better on Thursday, so he was able to go back to school on Friday.

I wasn't feeling too great on Friday, either, so I tried to take it easy. I did get some work done while Seth was at school, but after he got home I did a lot of reading and not much else. Unfortunately, by evening Frank was starting to feel just as bad as I was. Scott went to spend the night with a new friend from church whose name is Seth. His family moved here recently from South Carolina. When I went to pick him up this morning I was chatting with Seth's parents and discovered that they go to Brevard, NC (Frank's hometown) to camp pretty often.

Today I have been feeling better than yesterday (not great, but better) but Frank has been very miserable all day. It's too bad because it was a very beautiful day--sunny and the perfect temperature! I did manage to get my very dirty kitchen floor mopped and Tanner mowed the lawn, but other than that we weren't very productive. We watched some of the 9/11 memorial coverage and it still makes me cry! Partly out of sympathy for all the people who lost someone they loved, and partly for the beauty of all the acts of heroism. It is truly amazing to see how terrible things can bring out the very best in human nature.

Hopefully we'll all be back to being healthy again soon. This coming week we have stake conference, so it's going to be busy!

100 Things I Love

Just when you thought all I ever write is boring weekly reviews, I am finally finding some time to write something different! I was flipping through a notebook lately and found a list of 100 things that I love.

I'm pretty sure I made this list intending to create a scrapbook page, and never got around to doing it. Maybe someday I will actually get back to scrapbooking...but I doubt it, because blogging is so much easier! (Yes, I love the crafty creative part of scrapbooking but I just don't have the time to do that often and the photos themselves--and the stories behind them--are more important to me than creating a masterpiece.

Anyway, I digress. I decided it would be a shame to let this list go to waste just because I never have time to scrapbook, so I am going to blog it instead. I think I originally intended the list to be much shorter--say, 20 things or 50 things--but as I think I've mentioned before, I have a problem with favorites. I don't have a favorite anything because I can't narrow it down that much. I love too many things to keep it down to a list of just 20! So here you go...100 Things I Love (in no particular order). I'm sure I forgot a few hundred!

1. historical fiction
2. dark chocolate
3. strawberries
4. cashews
5. mushrooms
6. chewy candy (Starburst, Skittles, Hot Tamales, and esp. Jelly Beans!)
7. seeing new places
8. Iris flowers (all colors)
9. pansies
10. maps
11. autumn
12. fireworks
13. Haagan Daz ice cream bars (chocolate w / dark chocolate coating is the best!)
14. summer fruit (watermelon, cantalope, plums, apricots, cherries...)
15. eggs (esp. scrambled...or in an omelette)
16. breakfast food for dinner
17. BLT sandwiches (esp. w / fresh tomatoes)
18. bookkeeping
19. records--esp. family history records
20. lists (and particularly checking things off lists!)
21. encyclopedias
22. historical sites
23. learning history
24. Mexican food
25. Chinese food
26. romantic comedies
27. black licorice
28. puzzles--logic, syllacrostic, anagram squares, alphabet soup...
29. looking at family photos
30. learning about different cultures / regions of the USA
31. new school supplies
32. singing in choirs; trying different parts
33. listening to music
34. General Conference
35. The Book of Mormon
36. going to the temple
37. the scent of Simply Basic bath products (cinnamon / vanilla)
38. my family
39. being a mom
40. snuggling w/ Frank
41. girls' nights out
42. private jokes
43. eyelet
44. children's books
45. holding tiny, sleeping babies
46. Inside Out A'Cappella
47. new clothes
48. "glowing" feeling after exercising
49. fireflies / lightning bugs
50. organizing
51. rainbows
52. waterfalls
53. clean, uncluttered spaces
54. summer storms
55. Subway seafood & crab sandwich
56. warm bread (esp. with butter & strawberry freezer jam)
57. candlelight
58. Christmas music
59. basking in the lights from the Christmas tree
60. quilting
61. embroidery
62. cross stitch
63. sewing
64. musicals
65. hot chocolate w/ marshmallows
66. vanilla ice cream
67. sugar cookies, especially with frosting
68. the noise cicadas make on hot summer days
69. hot showers
70. blueberry cheesecake w/ shortbread crust
71. ice cold drinks
72. Hershey's with almonds
73. finding a great deal
74. people telling me I'm "tiny"
75. old movies
76. seashells
77. blue / white/ yellow colors
78. foil-wrapped packages
79. anything shiny!
80. seeing my boys growing up
81. hymns
82. Primary songs
83. lace
84. satin ribbon
85. grosgain ribbon
86. dollhouses & all things miniature
87. postcards
88. unique salt & pepper shakers
89. receiving flowers
90. Frank's thoughtfulness
91. learning something new
92. museums
93. childhood memories
94. board games
95. reading to my kids
96. baby clothes
97. personal revelation
98. newly fallen snow
99. border prints
100. fireplaces

I would add some nice pictures to jazz up this post except for the last several months I haven't been able to get blogger to add photos anywhere except the beginning of a post, which wouldn't be the same. (Oh, but that should go on my list of "Things I Hate". Yes, I have one of those too. It's a lot shorter than the "Things I Love" list, thankfully. But that's for another post!)
So what are some things you love? I'd really like to know!
Well, I finally wrote a post that wasn't a weekly review--check that off my list--CHECK! Now I am going to go eat some dark chocolate while poring over an encyclopedia...

Weekly Review September 4 '10

We are settling into our fall routine, and it's going well. I feel like I get a lot more done these days! I especially enjoy the new carpooling arrangements we have set up--I don't have to pick Jared up after school and it's amazing how much of a difference that makes! Seth seems to be loving school. He comes home almost every day covered in dust (the yard where they play doesn't have grass); one day his shorts were wet and when I questioned him about it he said he had spilled his water at snack time and then sat in the spilled water. Another day he had on a different shirt when I picked him up (one of his shirts--I had to provide a complete set of extra clothes to be kept at school) and the one he had worn that morning was in a ziploc bag, quite wet. I guess he spilled his water again! It cracks me up how messy he gets; quite the little BOY. I remember that Tanner was the same way at his age.

Speaking of Tanner, he and Scott have continued to get up on their own every morning for Seminary, and still come home and get their homework done every afternoon. It's been wonderful! It's amazing how much of a difference that makes for us, as parents, to have them be so responsible. I am particularly proud of Tanner, who is NOT a morning person. I've been asking him for years how he was going to manage to get up for Seminary when he got old enough, and he's always replied "I'll just have to do it." And that's exactly what he's doing. I suspect it will be harder to get up when winter comes along and the mornings are cold, but maybe he will surprise us again.

I can't remember much about Sunday except that it was busy. Frank and the boys had a fireside that evening for all the Aaronic priesthood holders and their fathers. Frank decided that Jared was close enough to being 12 to go to that, which left me home alone with Seth--who was already asleep; he fell asleep at 6:30 while sitting at the dinner table! He slept the whole night through, too--until about 6:30 the next morning. He must have been tired. He usually takes one or two naps per week lately. Anyway, I enjoyed the quiet time Sunday evening--spent it reading the new BFJ family book.

Monday was very busy with Primary stuff--I literally spent hours sending e-mails and making phone calls! There just seemed to be a lot of issues to resolve. Tuesday I had book club. I was not able to get a copy of the book we were reading, so I couldn't really participate in the discussion much, but I still enjoyed it. My interest is really piqued now, so I will have to read the book some day. It's called Quo Vardis; set in Roman times after Christ's death. Hopefully I'll have better luck getting the book for this month, which is called La's Orchestra Saves the World.

Wednesday was a busy day--busier than usual, I guess I should say! I had an appointment scheduled to see the eye doctor who did the surgery on my left eye a couple of years ago. Frank ended up needing to do some work for a client nearby, so he drove me down, which was really nice! I enjoyed having him along for company, and he drove, which is something I don't really enjoy doing, especially in busy areas that I'm not very familiar with. We picked up Seth from school and headed right down. Frank dropped me off at the doctor's office and took Seth with him to his client. He had finished with the client and was headed back my direction when I got done, so that worked out perfect--I only had to wait a few minutes. The doctor confirmed my suspicion that I am going to need the same surgery on my right eye that I had done on my left eye two years ago. He also said that the swelling in the corner of my eye is actually an infection, but when I told him I had just finished an antibiotic a couple of weeks ago, he decided not to put me back on an antibiotic unless it gets worse. I'm scheduled for surgery on November 11th. I would have liked to do it sooner, but there weren't many days available in September and I had to work around a number of things in October (including the Primary program--I learned from last time that doing surgery 3 days before the Primary program is not a good idea!) I also had to make sure I scheduled an appointment with my cardiologist within 30 days before the surgery, because I have to have cardio clearance from him. I just hope I don't have a lot of trouble with infection between now and then, but I'm afraid I might have another infection brewing right now--my eyelid is a little bit red and sore this morning.

After the eye doctor appointment, we made two more stops--at the scout store to get a merit badge sash for Jared & some mother's pins for me, and at the LDS bookstore so I could see if they had Faith in God books for girls--I found out earlier this week that we were out, and I was hoping to get some before today since there was a baptism this morning where 3 little girls in our ward got baptized. The bookstore didn't have any, though--they carry very few of the church distribution items. There's a new emergency preparedness store right upstairs, though, so Frank decided to check it out while I was checking the bookstore. He bought a couple of MREs, so we could test them out and see if we want to get some for our 72 hour kits. We also got a big bucket to hold our flour--we needed to replace the one that Mom gave us years ago. The lid on that one wouldn't seal anymore and we recently discovered that some of the ants from our ant invasion a few weeks ago had chosen the flour bucket as a place to curl up and die--yuck!

While we were driving from the doctor's office to the scout store, we started hearing on the news the reports about the hostage situation at the Discovery building in Silver Springs, not far from where we were. What a crazy world we live in!! I'm glad no one got hurt (besides the gunman). Frank had a scout committee meeting Wednesday evening, so he took the boys to the church for their scout activities while I got Seth to bed.

One of the things I've been having a hard time fitting into my schedule is exercise. I haven't figured out yet where it will best fit into my routine. I finally got some time to do that Thursday morning while Seth was at school, so I did a 30 minute bike ride on the Wii. It felt good to do that. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to fit it into my routine on a more regular basis!


I got a lot done on Thursday which turned out to be a good thing since I didn't get so much done yesterday. I had a bad headache for most of the day, so other than going to breakfast with my friend Rebecca, I didn't do much. Seth had a little bit of diarrhea Thursday evening, but he seemed fine yesterday morning so I sent him to school--but I put a pull up on him, just in case! He didn't have any problems, but later on in the afternoon he did, so whatever it is, it hasn't gone away completely. He seems fine otherwise. In the late evening Frank and I escaped for a few minutes to get some ice cream--that was nice!

The skies were pretty gray Friday morning--we were getting some of the outermost bands from Hurricane Earl--but that's all we got from that storm. Not a drop of rain or a single gust of wind--we can't complain about that, although we could have used some of the rain. We're glad the storm didn't end up causing much damage anywhere. Our weather did change later in the day yesterday, though--some sort of cold front came in because it was cooler and breezy last night, and it has continued to be that way today. After all the heat and humidity of the summer, this dry, cool breeze feels really nice! It's sunny besides, so perfect weather, really!

As I mentioned before, there was a baptism this morning. Scott was asked to help set up and to be a witness, so we got there an hour early. There were 10 children getting baptized (4 from our ward) so there was a very large crowd of people attending the baptism, and it the service lasted longer than usual. It was beautiful, though--I'm very glad I could be there, and I think Scott was too. In between baptisms, while we're waiting for the kids and their dads to change out of their wet clothes, they have us all sing songs and they call on people to share their testimonies. I got asked to do that today, which surprised me, but I was grateful for the opportunity to do that.

Since getting home, I have been busy with other Primary tasks, but I think I'm done now, so hopefully I'll get a little relaxing time. We are looking forward to having a quiet week end together as a family! Now Seth is waiting for me to read him a book, so I'd better post this review and read to him!

Enjoy your week end!